With life in The Bronx returned to normal – a fifth straight AL East crown already clinched, leaving the Yanks with a week to fine-tune themselves for another October run – the last half-dozen regular-season games mean next to nothing. Except for the Bombers’ Boss-driven quest to gain homefield throughout the playoffs and Alfonso Soriano’s run at history.

The Bombers faced Tampa Bay last night in another mostly anticlimactic game against the worst team in baseball. They came in trailing the A’s by one game for the best record in baseball, but the buzz on a brisk, crisp autumn night was whether Soriano would hit a home run and complete the fourth 40-40 (home runs and steals) season in history.

Every afternoon, Soriano fields questions like he’s fielding grounders at second. Each evening, the Stadium crowd rises to its feet and gives him an ovation before his at-bats. And his teammates often perk up in the dugout, rooting. Only Soriano seems dutifully unimpressed.

“My dream is [accomplished],” Soriano said. “I already hit 30 home runs and stole 30 bases. Hitting 40 home runs is fine for me, I’ll be happy; but if it doesn’t come, I’ll be happy anyway because when spring training started I thought about hitting 30-30, and I did it. I just want to play my game and be ready for the playoffs.”

The crowd often chants “MVP! MVP!” for Soriano, and they might not be far from the truth. With an AL-high 41 steals and 39 homers, he needed just one longball to join Jose Canseco (1988), Barry Bonds (1996) and Alex Rodriguez (1998) as the only members of the 40-40 club.

And with 49 doubles, he’d be the first 40-40 man with 40 doubles in major league history. But as juicy as all those numbers are, Joe Torre says he’ll yank the 24-year-old out of the lineup if he starts swinging for the fences like he did when he was stuck on 29 homers. So far, so good.

“He believes in himself. He has that inner conceit, which you need to be a good player,” Torre said. “[Monday] night I thought his at-bats were wonderful. He has a lot of fans not only in the stands but this dugout. Nobody’s jealous. There’s none of that going on.”

He’d been 3-for-17 leading up to his milestone 30th homer on Aug. 17, but he’s kept his swing and his head level of late. He came into last night 15-for-his-last-33, and trying to just go with the ball and make contact.

“I want him to do it because then he’ll relax a little more,” Jorge Posada said. “You can see it. Trying to get a home run, that’s not easy. I just tell him stay inside the ball and go to right field. If they throw a fastball inside, it’s going to happen.”

Despite being drilled on the left shoulder in his first at-bat Monday, he went 2-for-3 that night and started again last night. Torre indicated that he’ll definitely start Soriano in the last two games of the Tampa Bay series tonight and tomorrow, and decide about Baltimore later.

He had six games, including last night, to hit that milestone homer. He’s already broken Brett Boone’s AL home run record for second basemen, and with 97 of his 100 RBIs coming as a leadoff man, he was three shy of matching Darin Erstad’s two-year-old big league mark.

But if he doesn’t set another record this year – as if he doesn’t have enough – Soriano said he won’t be vexed.

“No, because this isn’t my last year in the league,” Soriano said. “I have 39 home runs, and I’m surprised. I never thought I’d do this.”